1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer-executed data queries. More particularly, the invention concerns a reconfigurable, web-browser-compatible system for conducting data queries. The system dynamically generates web-browser-compatible query form pages by utilizing user-reconfigurable query form controls defining query logic, HTML templates defining presentation of each query form control, and subquery generators implementing the query behavior of each query form control. Reconfigurable query form annotations determine which query form controls make up each particular web-browser-compatible query form page. This system aids in (1) assembling appropriate query instructions based on user-submitted values, and (2) rendering query results via web browser back to the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the advent of computers, we are confronted with an ever-increasing amount of electronic data. Computers also provide the most effective tool for organizing this data and searching for items of interest. Indeed, computer data queries save countless hours of human endeavor by rapidly searching enormous machine-readable databases for user-specified data.
Web-page designers traditionally allow for users' data queries by preparing a query form suitable to the nature of the expected queries. Such query forms are typically prepared by generating a number of hypertext markup language (HTML) elements that appear in the overall web page design. Cooperatively, these HTML elements represent the query form. One such example is the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site, which provides a patent search facility at http://164.195.100.11/netahtml/search-bool.html.
After the user completes the query form on-screen, the user operates his/her web browser to transmit the query parameters to the host web server. Other programming at the host, separate from the HTML components that visually present the query form, receives the user's query parameters, generates representative query instructions in an appropriate language such as structured query language (SQL), executes the query instructions, and controls the graphic presentation of the query results to the user.
In many cases, the foregoing approach provides a satisfactory solution, at least initially when the web page is first placed on-line. However, time often reveals a need to provide users with additional, different, or more powerful queries than those contemplated by the web site's initial query forms. Unfortunately, the seemingly simple task of redesigning these query forms involves significant time and labor because of the need to write, implement, and test (1) HTML code to define the new query form, (2) programming to generate and execute the appropriate query instructions based upon the new, user-completed query form, and (3) programming to visually present results of the new query format back to the user. In some cases, these difficulties provide a strong disincentive to improve the web site's search capabilities, and users are stuck with weak or outdated query facilities.
Consequently, known web-based data query facilities are not completely adequate for some applications due to certain unsolved problems.